On Black Friday, department stores become jungles, and the mall is practically Thunderdome. Millions of people line up early and battle for the best deals. Every year, countless people are injured, and even killed. While most injuries go unreported, many people walk away bruised and battered. Here are the most common ways people get injured on Black Friday, and how you can take legal action if these occur to you.
Parking Lot Injuries
Between being packed with cars, and the hundreds of people filling their trunks, collisions with other cars or pedestrians are common on Black Friday. In the case of parking lot injuries, it can be difficult to ascertain if the fault is on the driver or on the owner of the parking lot. This can become even more complicated if more than one store owns the lot.
Stampedes
When the doors are unlocked, it’s open season. Many injuries on black friday are inflicted by the mobs squeezing through the doors, and trampling people underfoot. While you can’t sue everyone coming through the doors, the blame here goes to the stores themselves. In more recent years, stores have worked to increase crowd control during these sales to reduce stampede injuries. You might want to be in front of the pack to grab the best stuff, but that is almost never a safe place to be.
Shopping Carts
If you survive the stampede, there is usually a scramble for shopping carts. During Black Friday, shoppers charge in with these heavy metal baskets on wheels. Some shoppers may even use them as a way to push others out of the way or knock things away. Injuries related to injury inflicted by another shopper can make them liable. If the injury is due to a damaged or broken cart, the liability can be placed upon the store.
Falling Objects
“Flying off the Shelves’ doesn’t just mean the items being picked up by shoppers. Stores stack items high on the shelves on Black Friday; and it isn’t uncommon for items to fall on top of shoppers in the melee below. A box falling on you can be a serious injury, especially if it injures your head or neck. Injuries like these are often the fault of the stores, whose high stacked shelves are extra packed for the super sales.
Assault and Battery
While there are plenty of accidents in the chaos that is Black Friday; there are plenty of intentional injuries. When stocks run low, and deals are on the line, fights can erupt. Fists fly, pepper-spray is deployed, and sometimes people bring knives or even guns. People can go to the extreme for savings on Black Friday; and things can get very dangerous, very fast. Security guards or mall cops can only stop so much, and in some cases, the police have been deployed to break up fights or stop dangerous people during Black Friday shopping. If you are injured in a fight on Black Friday, you may have a case against your aggressor.
For over 25 years, we have been assisting people in the New York/New Jersey area with injury cases of all shapes and sizes; from Slip and Falls, to Black Friday Shopping Injuries. Bite Back with D’Agostino & Associates, P.C. Call us at 1-888-245-2924 for a free consultation, or click here to contact us.
